90 Day Challenge Week 4…Completed!!!

…From now on, due to high comments about the length of these posts, I shall pretty much summarise the weeks; shorter blogs from now on.

This week was a busy one, it started on the Sunday with a nice drive up to the Lake District after a day of preparing food (See the featured image)! Two days away means that you have to prep properly, no half measures, all your sports kit needs to be ready, all your supplements need to be ready and of course, all your meals have to be ready! “So, hello Cumbria! Fancy seeing me looking like a dickhead you lucky people!”

Monday was a strange day really, I didn’t sleep much in the hotel and I was in a strange environment. I had the usual “Low carb” breakfast…homemade Granola with berries and greek yoghurt but for lunch, the place where we were conducting factory acceptance tests brought out a massive lunch…pizzas, sandwiches, crisps, Dr.Pepper and the list goes on. I sat there again watching everyone tucking in to the food whilst I ate my tuna salad. I go on about this so much because if you are reading this blog, this is one thing you don’t really expect to hit you. Its almost like an addiction, you see it, you want it! A part of you thinks you’ve missed out. Its rubbish; a real mental fight breaks out every time. The company policy at night is a £25.00 allowance for food, I couldn’t use it obviously which is quite a sombre experience. The ‘phys’ had to be done though and the hotel I requested had a gym…all be it not a very good one! The treadmill HIIT really pissed me off. Every time you jumped off for your 30 second rest; after 18 seconds the machine switched off saying “no user detected”. I battled with the settings for a while but in the end I realised that I’d have to take a few steps to trick it! Really annoying when you’re hanging out!

Tuesday morning I woke up early as usual and carried out my HIIT circuit in my hotel room. No excuses! I did an expert 25 minute HIIT with 25 different exercises to work the full body, I loved it! Someone who didn’t love it was my boss in the room next door! I woke him at 6 am doing tuck-jumps and full sprints in the room. I found this really funny as he kept me awake until 12ish by watching TV and chatting to his wife…the walls were really thin! “Swings and roundabouts boss”. Tuesday was spent doing the same as the day before but because I was heading back to the homeland I made sure that I had a spare dinner in case I got stuck in traffic…we didn’t and I’m glad because the food looked a bit ropey after a couple of days!

Wednesday, back to the gym and it was Sergio Ramos’d. Luckily I got a treadmill but I’m sure it was broke, I sounded like an elephant on the machine, it was banging like mad on every footstep. It was distracting but I smashed out 19kPH for the full 20 minutes and that felt good! On every rest I found myself apologising to all the other users but they didn’t mind. One bloke even commented an asked what I was doing, I told him and his response was “That’s one for the young lads” and started laughing! I’m concerned now though, my shins are getting sore. I don’t want to say the dreaded shin-splints but I’m going to have to move on to other equipment to get my heart rate up and ease off the impact.

Thursday Morning, early riser and smashing a low impact HIIT which comprised of squats, lunges and strange walking press-ups with the odd plank and mountain climber. It was a beasting on my already sore legs. The concern is that my legs are starting to become a weak point and so I may have to continue with just the full body HIITs and lay off the sprints…we’ll see! Next week will be better because of the new routine!

Its Friday! Football is back on the cards at DW and that has cheered my day right up. I’m sure I’ve got a bit of dog in me, 5-a-side is amazing for a work out and you don’t even realise that you’ve done that much running. Following a ball around like a dog is brilliant, but I noticed that my fitness levels have gone through the roof! I felt fine running from box to box for the full hour, not tiring at all really! Footy is basically grid sprints with a ball chucked in! I also got the winner at the end even though I had a pretty shocking game, first game back after a full month out and I couldn’t string a pass together or keep on my feet. Awful for me, awful for the guy I kept taking out all night…oops.

So, this part of the blog is reminiscent of a Jerry Springer moment… if you have been reading these posts since I started you will be aware that I started this plan based on the weight I was given at the consultants when I had my last appointment on the 23rd December. The weight given to me was 104.8Kg. It was the kick up the arse that I needed to do this plan and it was enforced by the consultant who was telling me that the disease could get worse if I didn’t get a handle on it. Harsh words were said, potential surgery, increased bowel cancer risks, osteoporosis etc etc scaremongering with a terrifying fact of reality, so here I am, about to start cycle 2 for the next 4 weeks and i’m at 90kg! Quite incredible really! I have lost 15kg.

I said that I wouldn’t weigh myself but that’s where my weak point has been. I haven’t cheated on this plan at all, no sneaky treats, no milk, no tea, no alcohol, no chocolate and my wife will vouch…trust me, she has eaten all the chocolate available! This has stopped me! Marital team work! I can’t say that I have seen the difference yet, but I am wearing clothes that I haven’t been able to wear…ever. I bought them, they never fitted but I knew some day I would get myself in shape…that someday started 4 weeks ago today and I’m feeling positive and proud that I am going in to cycle two thinner and more determined than ever…

Cycle two, I will be combining HIIT training with German Volume Training. The training will involve doing 6 HIIT exercises for 45 seconds with a 30 second rest followed by weights training which will focus on four muscle group options. The weights will be 10 sets of 10 reps at speed with a maximum rest of 30 seconds between sets. The plan gives you four options and you are only allowed to do one option in any one week but you must complete all four options in the week to ensure a full muscular work out is achieved. It even takes in to account legs so no danger of a chicken wandering around!

Food in cycle two is a little more important, it isn’t about shifting fat at this point, its about shaping your body. On training days you must eat 3 carb meals and 2 snacks and on rest days it is back to the low carb meals. The carbs meals appear to be massive! I have been shrinking my stomach for the last month and now the plan expects me to smash in the scran…this could be interesting!

I will leave you with those thoughts for this week! If you want to give me any more ideas on how to improve my blog, or if you want me to concentrate on specific parts of the plan don’t hesitate to contact me. I like answering questions about it and I hope I can educate you further on Inflammatory Bowel Disease!

The support from you guys has been really incredible so thank you for all your words of support!